GONZALES - With more than 100,000 cases in the state of New York, officials have been pleading with out-of-state health care workers to come help.

Latricia Toussaint from Gonzales has been working in a Bronx hospital for over a week now and says the reality on the front lines is much worse than people realize.

"I would say it's a little worse than the media describes. Because I've never experienced anything in my life, and I've been a nurse for 13 years... Nothing could have prepared me for this," she said. 

Toussaint is now working 15-hour days saving lives. 

"Thus far I would say about three, but every day there's a death--one or two--in the ICU... Just yesterday I had to actually code someone, but thank God they survived."

She says she wants people to fully realize the extent of this pandemic and how it's not just the immunocompromised who are dying. 

"Those are the ones who have been getting hit really hard, the elderly, but I've actually taken care of someone as young as 29 years old."

And as her home state struggles with a lack of ventilators, Toussant stresses how important they are. 

"It's a life-saving equipment. I think without the ventilators, patients wouldn't be able to survive even a day," Toussant explained.

If there's one thing Toussant says she wants people to learn from her experience, it's that they stay home and continue to practice social distancing.